What I have to show after a four day weekend...

Not a lot, unfortunately. I did a lot of playing on the computer. Some standing in line to buy shoes (hey! There was an exciting outlet sale!). We ate Indian food with a friend, went bowling (I won) and played video games until my brain started oozing out of my ear. I also baked some peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and did so by improvising my own recipe after screwing up the recipes I looked at online. They still taste good.

Oh, and I finished my next mix cd for my mix cd group. Shhh... It's a secret though because my partner hasn't gotten it yet. Unfortunately I can't find links to a couple of the songs... What do you think??
Sometimes It's Sunday
November 2010 Mix

1. Road Regrets- Dan Mangan
2. We'll Make Time (Even When There Ain't No Time)- Hawksley Workman
3. Go On- Basia Bulat
4. I've Been Asleep for a Long, Long Time- Hey Rosetta!
5. Da Da Da- Holly McNarland
6. Careful What You Wish For- Raine Maida
7. Face of the Earth- Joel Plaskett Emergency
8. Far Away- Martha Wainwright
9. Palmistry- Great Lake Swimmers
10. Our Hell- Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton
11. Heavens to Purgatory- The Most Serene Republic
12. In the Road- Weeping Tile
13. Madeleine (I Want to be Brave)- Sarah Slean
14. Personal- Stars
15. Where and When- Hayden
16. Weighty Ghost- Wintersleep

Adventures in Domesticity

Now that I have a day job and Matt's a student again we have settled into a routine. It's funny; when I was younger I balked at this kind of predictability. I was all, "I'm going to stay up all night, sleep all day and then eat Slim Jims dunked in cream cheese frosting because I'm an adult and there's nothing anyone can do about it!". Now I look forward to coming home and watching reality TV or maybe curling up with a book and watering my plants. I think the difference is that I know I can still do all that silly irresponsible stuff but that I don't really have anything to prove. Plus it's sort of nice to get a respectable amount of sleep and take the time to exfoliate.

Anyway, Sundays seem to be our most relaxed day. Usually filled with housework, grocery shopping and a home cooked meal. Yesterday was no exception and I was feeling ambitious so I tried a new recipe for supper. (Off of Smitten Kitchen, no less!) Behold my mushroom bourguignon! I feel like Julia Child or something! It was pretty easy to make (except for those annoying pearl onions- thanks Steph for doing my dirty work!) and really delicious. It's even vegetarian! (Side note- I wish I was able to take better pictures or learn how to edit better so that my food pictures actually looked appetizing.)

After supper I watched the Amazing Race and Matty decided to bake up a storm for the bake sale fundraiser at school. Weird. But it did make our house smell heavenly! So how was your Sunday?

Memory is Fading...

I can't believe it's almost been 2 years since we were in Korea. I have forgotten so much! I am really thankful that I kept a blog through that experience otherwise I probably wouldn't be able to remember anything. I forget that I am forgetting sometimes- like today when I was trying to talk to a coworker about patbingsu and couldn't remember it's name. I was just like uhhhh you know, uhhhh red bean ice cream?? Everyone will be relieved to hear that I am maintaining my curse words and insults.

I am such a Korea nerd now. I wish I had some Korean friends here. Whenever I hear Korean or am in a Korean restaurant or grocery store I perk up. It's sort of the opposite of how I was in Korea where I would almost give myself whiplash trying to find the English speaking source.

Unfortunately here Korean folks seem to stick together and don't really seem to care about my interest in their language, culture, food, etc. Another instance of me being just regular in Canada.

Matt and I have figured out to make some Korean food at home- there's some chamchi kimbap that Matt made. I make a really spicy gimchi jjigae and we have figured out galbi and bibimbap as well. I wish we had some hot stone bowls so that we could make dolsot bibimbap. We've even managed to grow some perilla from seeds I bought off of Ebay! I should take some pictures of that since I've always been terrible with plants but in this new adorable apartment I have found my green thumb. Maybe it's my landlady rubbing off on me? (She has an amazing garden.)

Galbi Buffet with Stephie!!!

Steph and I scheduled in some sister time and decided to go out for dinner. I had a hankering for Korean so we checked out the Korean Village. It's in a strange location and seems to be a family operated business. They have a killer (although a bit expensive) buffet with many of my favorite dishes. There were even grills built right in the table! It was like being transported back to my favorite restaurant in Seoul. I wish I had some Korean friends here... Anyway, we had a great time and ate until our bellies hurt. I'll definitely have to return with a group. I was too shy to use my Korean though.

Jacqueline's Visit

It might come to a surprise that I have another sister. I spend a lot of time with Steph since she lives nearby but I do have a sister that lives far away. Well, she came to visit us. This was excellent because we went out to eat at a lot of yummy places (oh and it was nice to spend time with her too! Haha!). My heart is through my stomach.

Dad and Sharron brought Venus along to visit and we brought her up to the apartment. It's a no pets apartment but I figured that having her there for an hour wouldn't kill anyone. She loved the carpet! They have hardwood in their place so she hasn't really experienced carpet before. I really miss having dogs around.

We went to Olive Garden with Dad and Sharron the first night and then to Chili's with Mom the next night. Delicious! I did have to work on Remembrance Day but managed to hang out with Jac a lot afterward. We had some amazing sushi (in a HUGE boat) and then saw The Box (which was disappointing). I was pleased to learn that my non-reading sister has been reading a little because she has a lot of time on her hands at work these days. I immediately lent her three books in hopes that she will continue with this and become hooked on reading. I was able to do it with Steph in the summer and as a result she finished 10 books! I gave Jac a few "sure things"- The Lovely Bones, Midwives and Helpless so hopefully the reading bug will bite her too!

Missing Korea...

It's my only day off this week so I decided to use it to the fullest and try my hand at making gimchi jjigae at home. I trucked off to the Asian supermarket in order to find some of the ingredients and managed to come home with all sorts of goodies. In this picture: lots of gimchi, gochujang, ssamjang, red pepper flakes, Pocari Sweat, 2% peach drink, Lotte choco pies, sticky rice buns, galbi marinade, green onions and tofu.

Korea has been on my mind a lot. I feel like a torn person. I love being in Canada and that my family and friends are here. However, I loved being in Korea too. There was adventure, friends and a pretty sweet job. I had lunch with Diane this week and she asked me about jobs and I said that I wished I could have my job in Korea here. No, I don't want to be a teacher- I want to be an EFL teacher to adorable Korean children. I couldn't handle the lack of respect and all of the extra work that actual teachers have to do (much respect to them!). I liked the fact that the parents and I didn't share a common language and I loved how industrious, curious and dedicated my students were.

Lately I've been talking a lot about Korea to a particular client at work. He seems honestly fascinated about Korea and can't wrap his mind around the differences between there and here. He was shocked to hear what the population is and how most people live in apartments. Almost every night he asks me questions and so I talk and talk and talk and miss and miss and miss. I haven't been keeping in touch with my Korean friends as well as I should. I think I am avoiding it because it makes me sad that I can't be there with them. I look back at my Little Brown Blog and I get really sentimental. Sure, things weren't perfect there but nothing is perfect and it was really awesome. The jjigae tasted really authentic and was even better with some chamchi (tuna) mixed in. Another culinary success!!

Under the Weather

I haven't been really sick but I've felt run down for almost a week now. Sort of like I have a constant sleep deficit even though I'm sleeping a lot. As a result I stayed in most of the weekend. Lucky for me, Mom made some of her world famous chicken noodle soup and some homemade buns to go with it. It was perfect timing! I've got a hard work week coming up so hopefully this will sustain me!

Celebration Dinner!

On Saturday night we went out for dinner with Mom, Tom and Steph. We'd already planned on going out earlier in the week but since we'd just found out the good news about Matt's LSAT score, it was more like a celebration dinner. Being the classy, sophisticated lawyer-to-be he is, Matt ordered a cheese burger and a huge beer. The ladies shared a really fabulous bottle of shiraz and a good time was had by all! We also shared a massive dessert at the end of the meal which was yummy but terribly difficult to eat. Somehow we managed. We're just that determined.

Another Attempt at Cooking

I had the Tuesday after the Thanksgiving weekend off from work so I decided to try using the crock pot again. This time I tackled beef stew and made some baking powder biscuits to go along with it.

I had fabulous ingredients since Mom had loaded us up with fresh potatoes, carrots and beets from her garden. I bought some nice beef and trimmed it carefully. The stew turned out pretty good- it tasted nice. I should have added the potatoes later so they weren't annihilated and the beets made the whole thing pretty red. Oh well. The biscuits were nice but pretty filling. I used half whole wheat flour and half regular when making them. I also substituted skim milk for regular and margarine for butter.

It was an especially good idea since the weather was crappy outside. I am glad that the snow is finally gone but I am sure it will be back soon.

Thanksgiving...

This is really late and I have been slacking in the blog department. I am not sure what my problem is but it's possible I have been fighting off a cold. This has resulted in me feeling extremely run down and unmotivated.

Thanksgiving weekend was fantastic. We went to my Dad's on Saturday and had a massive ham dinner and played a lot of Balderdash. Leah finally got to meet my family (I mean, I've only been with Matt a decade so it was about time). On Sunday we went to the local fire station for a pancake breakfast. It was probably the nicest pancake breakfast I've ever been to since it included eggs, hash browns, bacon and sausage, a fruit and cheese platter, numerous kinds of juices and Tim Horton's coffee. I think Leah was charmed by the small town atmosphere.

After the pancake breakfast we headed over to my Mom's house. She did the turkey meal this year with all of the Ukrainian food favorites. To clarify, we actually aren't Ukrainian, we just like the food and there are a lot of Ukrainian people in our area. As usual, the crowning glory was the pumpkin pie! I'm drooling a little thinking about it.

We played more games at Mom's house and watched some TV. Basically we just relaxed a lot. The next morning she made this amazing cinnamon cake thing and had a bunch of fresh fruit for breakfast. So delicious! How did everyone else spend their Thanksgiving?

Friends, Farmer's Market, Fun!

I love this time of year and I really love how my life is coming together these days. My job is going pretty good, I adore my apartment and the people who live with me and I have old friends resurfacing daily. Lucky, lucky me!

Friday was a long, busy, fantastic day. I worked from 7-3 and got a lot accomplished. Then I immediately went shopping and bought some things I really needed (like pants since it is getting pretty cold). I went home and picked up Bryn on the way. We hung out while Matt cooked us an epic Indian feast from scratch (Steph ended up over and had some too). With the kitchen in shambles we rushed out to the Princess Theatre and caught the late showing of the Invention of Lying (Hilarious! Love!) and then came home, cleaned up and fell fast asleep.

Saturday we got the burnt out headlight fixed on the Kiester before heading over to the Farmer's Market to meet up with Carole and Severin. I can't even remember the last time I saw Carole. She's doing fabulous and I really missed her. I loved all of the fall colors and foods at the market. We bought some amazing spanakopita, butter tarts, blackberries, gimchi and kettlecorn. There was a craft show going on so we explored that and I picked up a pretty, new necklace. We checked out an open house for a new wellness clinic and enjoyed some free juice and snacks. Finally we had a bite to eat at the Artisan's Resto-cafe. Excellent!

After saying goodbye to Carole, I decided to bake some peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Donna came by for a visit and offered some moral support. The cookie dough was insanely amazing but the cookies ended up burnt, despite all my efforts. I have a few theories as to why this happened- I used natural peanut butter (which is a lot more oily), the temperature/time instructions for the recipe may have been off or maybe my oven is insanely hot? I don't know. The last couple pans were less burnt so I did try to fix the problem. I seriously baked one pan of them for 5 minutes! Insanity!!!

Later in the evening we started watching the season opener for the Oilers. They fought a mighty battle but lost at the last minute to the Flames. I was so sad!! We watched the last half of the game at a noraebang (Korean karaoke) place. It was so much fun but the song selection was a tad random and we had to write down all of our requests by hand. This led to us forgetting what we'd chosen (which was sort of hilarious) and meant we had less control overall. Apparently there are two other noraebang places in the city so I intend to check them out at some point and figure out which is the best. I have to say that this place (Now & Us) has huge rooms and an adorable owner! Basically Saturday was also awesome! I love my time off so much!

We have nothing but great plans for Sunday, also. We're going to see some more friends and Bryn is making us chili and cornbread. To be continued!!

Sushi, Sushi, Sushi!

My supper date with Steph and her friends was a lot of fun. We met at Maki Maki and ordered a lot of sushi! Everything and everyone wasn't photographed but here's a little peak at a few of the delicious dishes! I would go there again since the prices were okay and the sushi was yummy! I think I need a plate of tuna sashimi all to myself though. I miss the sushi place we went to in Korea with it's included miso soup and cheaper prices. Maki Maki does have a better menu than that place though. Does anyone else love sushi like I do? What's your favorite kind?

Peanut Butter Pork

So I decided to try and be domestic and made supper the other night. I used the crock pot since I love that you can dump stuff in it and leave it alone. I decided to try an unusual sounding recipe that had great reviews: Asian Peanut Butter Pork. Overall it turned out pretty tasty. The pork was moist and tender and the sauce wasn't really that peanut buttery, it was more like an unusual sweet sauce (but not in a bad way). I went all out and even picked up the recommended garnishes and I'm glad that I did since the lime really helped add some lightness to the dish. The sauce is really heavy. Everyone liked it, however, it's not really the type of thing you'd want to eat everyday. The website I found the recipe on looks pretty interesting. The writer made all of her family's meals in the crock pot for an entire year and blogged about it. Lots of good ideas! Does this mean I will be cooking all the time? No, sorry folks. I still dislike it immensely!

The Cupcake Phenomenon

After hanging out with Diane I did a few errands and then decided to succumb to the "new" cupcake trend that seems to be going on. I realize this isn't that new, since they have had cupcake shops in Vancouver and Calgary (and who knows where else) for a number of years now. In fact, a few years ago Leah bought make a cupcake birthday cake (it was just a CAKE though, so I didn't really understand what they were trying to pull with that)! Now it seems to be exploding a bit and cupcakes are everywhere! Have you seen all of the complicated cupcake cookbooks you can buy now? Of course, no one can forget the awesome hamburger cupcakes that I made last month.

There are two cupcake shops in Edmonton within a few blocks of each other: Fuss Cupcakes and Flirt Cupcakes. Is this really sustainable? Are cupcakes here to stay or will one (or both?) of these businesses be collapsing in the next while? Is a cupcake really worth $3.10? Why are cupcakes so popular these days?

I decided to find out and went to Fuss Cupcakes and tried their Soul Mate concoction. The Soul Mate has chocolate cake infused with vanilla butter cream frosting and then is dipped in chocolate ganache. The cake itself was nothing special- dry actually, but the presentation is really fun and whimsical. The whole shop is quite the novelty and that's my opinion of all these cupcake shops. We're in a recession and $3.10 seems pretty inexpensive for something fun even though it is actually quite expensive for the product itself. I am sure that all of the cupcakes are tasty but it's a silly expense when you could just bake your own at home.

Maybe cupcakes are for the weight conscious? It makes sense- you just have one and put the rest away. Cupcakes are adorable and as a result, their size makes you think that you're not really indulging. The problem with baking them yourself is that rarely does anyone just eat one cupcake and give the rest away. When you bake you end up eating a lot of the batter, icing and then a number of your creations (or is this only me and my zero willpower?). Really you would be better off making a cake since it is less time consuming and you'll probably only eat a piece of it. Or have a cupcake party with a bunch of people so that the decorating work and the eating is more evenly distributed.

What do you think? Have you noticed the increased cupcake popularity? Are they worth the hype? I just keep thinking about how ridiculously popular they would be in Korea (are there cupcake shops there now? I miss Korea!!).

So Many Delicious Baked Goods...

As if having a fridge full of cupcakes wasn't enough, this weekend Steph went home to visit Mom and they did a lot of baking. Because they are awesome and love me they made two of everything. So yesterday I got my tasty care package. I have banana bread, zucchini loaf and rhubarb strawberry cake! I think I will have to start jogging or something or invest in bigger pants. Haha! Leah is going to love living with us!

Is it a hamburger or a cupcake? IT'S BOTH!

I've been working a lot and was really looking forward to my days off. I had a pretty jam packed Sunday, actually. I spent the morning hanging out with Severin and we had a pretty wicked brunch (I had eggs Benedict with bacon, tomato and avocado in it!!). Then I went to see Choon Hyang: True Love at the Fringe. It was adorable and made me really miss Korea.

So how could I keep the awesome rolling? By making cupcakes that look like hamburgers, of course! I can't take credit for this idea (I found it randomly on the internet) but I did make these myself. Not from scratch since I don't have a million days off. But you get the idea. I am so proud of these and think I will bring some to work with me tomorrow so the kids I work with can try them. They already know I'm a geek so why not hammer that point home? Haha.

So now I have a dilemma. What to do with all the cupcake parts that didn't get made into hamburgers? This would be a good time for my friends to visit and eat cupcake type things. Please save me from myself!

We Make Miracles Happen

It was Miracle Day at Dairy Queen. Of course we had to take time out of our busy day to support it. Charity never tasted so good!

An Indian Feast!

Now that I am back in the real world (aka full time employment) I definitely savor my time off. On the weekend we went grocery shopping and it was fantastic. It's one of those errands I've always liked and as a result we had tons of delicious food options. We decided to make a huge supper filled with East Indian goodness. We had naan, aloo gobi, palak paneer, butter chicken and salad. We invited Steph and Alisse over and somehow managed to finish all the food. I kind of wish I didn't work so many evenings so I could do this sort of thing more often. Get a load of the massive cauliflower that we bought!

Hite Happy

Friday night we decided to celebrate my weekend off by trying out one of the Korean restaurants in the area. It's called Lee House and it was decent. The gimchi wasn't as spicy as I like but they did have banchans (side dishes) included with the meal unlike many places around here that want to charge you $3 extra for some gimchi!

Lee House is small and homey and it reminded me a lot of authentic Korean places. It had only one poor little ajumma running around trying to serve everyone. We had the gimchi bokumbap (fried rice) and some bulgogi. Both were tasty but I would like to try some more dishes before I make my decision. I was excited that they served Hite beer.

Oh Hite, so crisp and fresh. I love how your "open mark turns blue at optimal tasting temperature".